MOE kindergartens will run from 7am to 7pm, in one programme, by 2030. The ministry set out the change on Wednesday, 28 October: a full-day model piloted at two kindergartens next year, then rolled out to all 56 centres between 2028 and 2030.
The model folds lessons, play and after-school care into a single programme run by MOE kindergarten staff. Today, a kindergarten day lasts four hours and parents who need the rest of the day buy Kindergarten Care from an external operator. Under the new arrangement, parents pay one fee to the kindergarten instead of two sets of charges to two providers.
A half-day option stays, from 7am to 12.30pm, for families who do not need the full day.
The two pilot centres
MK@Rivervale and MK@West View run the model from January 2027. MK@Rivervale is new and takes its first K1 cohort next year, and there will be 57 kindergartens in 2027.
At MK@West View, children already enrolled in the four-hour programme move to the half-day programme for K2, while children in MK-KCare move to the full-day programme.
What parents pay
For the two pilot centres, a Singaporean child pays S$665 a month for the full day before subsidies, or between S$3 and S$425 after them, depending on the family’s eligibility. The half day is S$310 before subsidies, or between S$1 and S$160 after.
Permanent residents pay S$735 for the full day and S$320 for the half day, with no subsidy tier.
MOE’s benchmark is what families pay now. A four-hour kindergarten place costs S$160 a month for a Singaporean child before means-tested help, and Kindergarten Care adds up to S$275 after the basic subsidy. The new out-of-pocket amounts will be comparable to those combined fees, and to full-day fees at anchor operator childcare centres.
Fees for the centres that join from 2028 have not been set.
Who is in the room
MOE will hire programme officers to support care and supervision, including at meals, while kindergarten educators keep responsibility for the curriculum. There are 1,100 MK teachers now, and the number of staff per centre will depend on enrolment. Existing Kindergarten Care staff can be recruited as programme officers.
Teachers’ daily hours do not change. They will work earlier or later shifts, and their contact time with children stays at about five hours, spread across the day rather than packed into a morning.
Protected vacation time stays, but teachers will take turns so that kindergartens can stay open through the holidays. In the four-week June break, each teacher still gets two weeks.
Which centres and when
MOE will name the kindergartens joining the model each year at the March registration exercise for the following year’s K1 intake. The list for 2028 comes at the 2027 exercise.
65 per cent of the 8,000 children in MOE kindergartens use Kindergarten Care now. The change follows the Prime Minister’s National Day Rally pledge to bring full-day childcare fees at government-supported preschools down to S$150 a month by 2030.
